INFERNAL
Classification
Infernal / Contractual Breach Risk
Client
██████████ (alias: "Mr. Haslam")
Intake Date
14 March 2026
Interviewer
D. Morrow, Senior Investigator
Entity Class
Infernal, Tier III (provisionally)
Entity Designation
Unknown — Client refers to it as "Achemon." No matches in Liber Nominum or Kessler Index. Possible alias.
Audio recorded with Voss-Kessler spectral filter active. No anomalous resonance detected in client's voice at time of interview. Ward integrity confirmed at 98.2%.
Morrow:
Alright, Mr. Haslam. We're recording now. You can start wherever you're comfortable.
Client:
I don't know where comfortable is anymore. Can we — are those things on the windows actual wards or decorative? Because I've been in places that claimed to be warded and they were not.
Morrow:
Solomonic triple-bind. Refreshed this morning. You're safe in this room, I promise you that.
Client:
Fine. Okay. Fine. So I made a bet. With something. And I lost.
Morrow:
Tell me about the entity first. You called it Achemon?
No Achemon in Kessler. Possible corruption of Archimonde? Or deliberate alias to avoid true-name indexing. Follow up w/ Yael.
Client:
That's what it told me to call it. It was — look, it was charming. Unbelievably charming. I didn't think I was talking to anything dangerous. I thought it was a person, at first. We met at a bar. It bought me a drink. Laughed at my jokes. Nobody laughs at my jokes.
Morrow:
What did it look like?
Client:
Normal. Completely normal. Man, maybe late forties, grey at the temples. Nice coat. The only strange thing was the hands. Too many knuckles. I didn't notice until later.
[Client pauses. Drinks water. Hand visibly shaking.]
Morrow:
Take your time.
Client:
It brought up the bet like it was a joke. A game. "I'll wager you can't do a thing," it said. Simple thing. Stupid thing, really. I thought it was a bar game. I thought — I don't know what I thought. That I'd win a free drink.
Morrow:
What was the bet?
Client:
It said if I could hold my breath for three minutes, it would owe me a favour. Any favour. And if I couldn't —
[Silence. 7 seconds.]
Client:
I couldn't. Obviously. Nobody can hold their breath for three minutes. It knew that. It set it up so I'd lose.
· · ·
Morrow:
Mr. Haslam, I need to ask you what the penalty terms are. What does the entity collect if you lose.
Client:
No.
Morrow:
I understand this is difficult. But for us to assess containment options, we need to know what the contract —
Client:
I said no. I'm not — I can't. And you don't need to know. You just need to stop it from collecting. That's the job. Can you do the job or not?
Morrow:
We can discuss options. But I have to be upfront with you: containment of an infernal entity without knowing the contract terms is like performing surgery without seeing the x-ray. We might cut the wrong thing.
He knows what the penalty is. Whatever it is, it's bad enough that saying it out loud scares him more than the entity itself. That narrows the possibilities.
Client:
Then cut carefully. I can pay. Whatever your rate is, I'll pay it. I just need this thing put somewhere where it can't reach me. A box. A circle. I don't care. A hole. Is there — can you put it in a hole?
Morrow:
Containment is possible. We've done it before. But a Tier III infernal entity — and that's our provisional rating, it could be higher — that's not a weekend job. We'd need to identify it properly. True name, origin plane, binding protocols. We'd need to determine whether the contract has a collection window or if it's open-ended.
Client:
It said I have until the equinox.
Morrow:
Which equinox?
Client:
The next one. The — the autumn one.
Morrow:
September. That gives us six months. That's workable. But I need something from you in return.
Client:
What?
Morrow:
If at any point we determine that the penalty terms affect the containment strategy — and they will — I'm going to ask you again. And you're going to have to answer me.
[Client nods. Does not speak for 11 seconds.]
Client:
Have you ever met something that knew things about you that you'd never told anyone? Not guessed. Knew. Down to the specific words you used in a private conversation ten years ago. It repeated them back to me. Verbatim. In my mother's voice.
Morrow:
Yes. I have.
Client:
Then you know why I can't say the terms out loud. Because it might — if I say them, it's like it becomes more real. More — anchored. Do you understand?
Morrow:
I understand. We'll work with what we have for now.
· · ·
Morrow:
One more question before we close the intake. Has it contacted you since the bar?
Client:
It doesn't contact me. It just — shows up. In reflections. In mirrors, windows, puddles. Always just at the edge. Smiling. It has the same face but too many teeth now. Like it doesn't need to pretend anymore.
[At this point the Voss-Kessler filter registers a brief spectral spike — 0.3 seconds, 4.2 on the Aldiss scale. Ward integrity drops momentarily to 94.7% before restoring. Client does not appear to notice. Morrow signals to end the recording.]
Morrow:
I think that's enough for today. We'll be in touch within forty-eight hours with a preliminary assessment and fee structure. In the meantime — and I'm serious about this — do not look into standing water after dark. Covered mirrors. No reflective surfaces at night. Can you do that for me?
Client:
I've been doing that for two weeks.
Morrow:
Good. Keep doing it.
[Recording ends. Duration: 22 minutes, 14 seconds.]
D — ran the spectral spike through analysis. It wasn't ambient. Something was listening. Whatever "Achemon" is, it's already tethered to this man. The contract is live and the entity has proximity.
Recommend we move to active protocols.
— Yael